The Shelby Report of the Southwest
2018 Retail Innovator and Executive of the Year
Taylor Made for Leadership
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Robert Taylor says he looks forward to getting up every morning. He never dreamed he would be in the position he is today, president of The United Family. But it seems he was destined for the role. Taylor had been associated with United Supermarkets for a long time before he became part of it. He was at the helm of R.C. Taylor Distributing, formerly R.C. Taylor Wholesale, his father’s business, and United Supermarkets was its biggest account. In 2007, Taylor sold the business to United Supermarkets and became a part of the company’s leadership team as VP of logistics. In 2010, he was named president. The people who work with him are incredibly modest when speaking about themselves, but effusive in their admiration for him. In their words, he is a visionary, genuine, energetic, a bulldog, a relationship builder, respected—and pixie dust. The Shelby Report of the Southwest is honored to recognize Robert Taylor as our Executive of the Year.
“From day one, Robert Taylor’s leadership and vision has sustained the long-standing tradition of remarkable service and quality that United Supermarkets has been known for. They also exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit that has made our company successful. The Albertsons Cos. team has learned a great deal from United’s innovations and applied them to other areas of the company, including our new flagship Albertsons store in Boise. Robert has also continued fostering the strong community programs that have engaged team members and given back tremendously to the neighborhoods surrounding United stores. On behalf of the entire Albertsons Cos. family, congratulations to Robert, his leadership team and all of the United associates on this well-deserved honor.”
—Bob Miller, Albertsons CEO
“Robert Taylor is an extraordinary leader, a great guy and someone you can be proud to report to. But don’t confuse that with being easy. He is the highest-energy person I know. He’s very driven and passionate, and he’s a bulldog. Robert’s amazing. I don’t know when he sleeps. He keeps up with his emails, keeps up with so many details with our business. We’ll talk on a Tuesday about doing something, and we will work all day Tuesday and maybe finish about 7, 8 in the evening. Wednesday at 10 a.m., he is asking about where we are with it. “What makes him such a great leader is he pushes you hard, but for some reason, you don’t feel bad about it. I’ve really grown to appreciate him more and more over the years. You hardly have an interaction with Robert when you don’t feel good even when you aren’t meeting his expectations. People like Robert are good at inspiring folks and engaging people. Inspired people are better than knowledgeable people, and if they are engaged, that’s even better. That’s like pixie dust and that’s Robert Taylor.”
Robert Taylor
“Robert Taylor is just hard to beat. I mean, he is genuine. The thing I like about him is he’s very visible in the company, and he’s always approachable. He’s probably the most approachable person that I’ve worked for in leadership. A sacker doesn’t have a problem approaching him. He’s going to hold you accountable, but it’s fair and you know you can approach him on a solution. There is no telling how many things are on his mind right now, at that (corporate) level. If you’re not mind-conscious, you could walk right by someone and not say good morning. He doesn’t do that.”
—Wes Jackson, The United Family Chief Merchandising Officer
— Greg Ammons, The United Family VP of Strategic Initiatives Please see page 34
Five Banners, Five Distinct Experiences If there is one thing that really sets The United Family apart, it is the company’s innovation in branding. The United Family operates five retail banners: United Supermarkets, Amigos, Albertsons Market, Market Street and United Express. Each has its own look and personality. There are grocery companies operating today under one banner or maybe two that are similar, but five distinct banners? That gets tricky, said Mary Myers, United’s senior communications and community relations manager. “We’ve invested a lot of time, money, research and attention in developing diversified brands, from the typical brand piece, like colors and fonts and the logo, but also all the way down into how does it feel when a guest is in that store,” she said. “What do we want them to say about us when they leave? We’ve got value codes, we’ve got a brand persona, we’ve got all these pieces that as a marketing person I geek out over. I love branding when it’s done well.” Myers pointed out that the one entity that gets less branding than all of the other companies that make up organization—there are eight in total, including the five retail banners—is the parent, The United Family. It is focused on the least because what matters most is getting the experience each banner offers right.
“The United Family is our company name, and we were family-owned for a long time, but what it really means now is this family of brands that is entirely diversified and different,” Myers said. “There are different versions of the weekly ad depending on which banners are in which area. We send a lot of weekly emails. There is a lot of niche content that is being developed to be delivered to guests who want some or all of the different opportunities that are available in these different brands—all of it with great service, all of it at a fair price and all of it on trend so every one of them has got an eye on what’s next but none of them are the same.” United Supermarkets and Albertsons Market stores are more traditional grocery stores. But a rural United Supermarkets store still will have a vastly different feel than an Albuquerque Albertsons Market. “Traditional grocery is alive and well, so we have to be able to serve that guest,” Myers said. “There still is a big niche for traditional grocery for someone on a tight budget who isn’t buying from the floral department or who will stop in the bakery for a special treat.” The distinction really begins when a shopper walks into a Market Street, Amigos or United Express.
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Human Resources and Community Giving
Getting the Right People in the Right Places The United Family excels in many things but really rises to the top when it comes to employee recruitment and recognition. Talented employees are moved into spots where they have the potential for success. “The company absolutely finds the people and develops them, and the career path finds them,” said Mary Myers, senior communications and community relations manager. “There’s a lot of opportunity in the company for careers that a lot of people don’t recognize as being part of grocery retail.” The company has been a step ahead in bringing the right employees— Mary Myers called team members by United—into areas experiencing rapid growth, including foodservice at retail. It has become a staple in the company’s Market Street stores in particular, but also in its other banners, including Amigos and its United Express convenience stores. High-quality food choices are of course paramount, but United also ensures that qualified team members are in the stores ready to help time-strapped customers, Myers said. “No one is getting less busy, so meal solutions and convenience will continue to be drivers. It’s got to be easy to get the food on the table—but it also has to be healthy,” she said. “American families are no longer willing to settle for overprocessed, preservative-heavy TV dinners. They want it to be easy and fast, but they are not willing to settle.” The United Family has made a commitment to support institutions that educate potential employees for a foodservice career. “There’s a lot of innovation happening inside of that area with us to make sure that we stay on the cutting edge and are able to deliver that to the families who are counting on us,” Myers said. “We’ve developed partnerships with several educational institutions—school districts, community colleges—in culinary arts. We stand right alongside them in terms of supporting the classroom piece of it. We’ll send out experts to help with labs or to present guest lectures.” An internship program allows students to go in-store for hands-on experience. The hope is they will find their passion—or decide quickly that it may not be the career for them. “That’s what an internship is for,” Myers said. “It’s just as much about finding what you love as it is about finding what you don’t love. We give them that hands-on experience in a company like this where they are learning from experts and they are interacting with amazing guests.” Myers praises United’s “friendly and understanding” shopper base for the leeway it gives students who are learning. She said what may look like a corporate sponsorship
The students who put together the floral arrangements dressed up and had their own table at the gala.
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from the outside is much more than that. The educational programs are broad-based, with opportunities in different categories, including floral design. “Last year, we were approached for a floral donation for a local event. We get a high volume of donation requests and can’t always say yes. This one we really wanted to do, but it was tough to make it fit into the budget,” she said. “Our floral director (Bradley Gaines) realized this could be an amazing opportunity for those interns.” This project gave Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) students the experience of providing custom floral arrangements for an event. It was a win for United Supermarkets because it could fulfill the donation request, a win for the students who got that hands-on, real-world experience in floral design and also a win for the organizers of the event. “The culinary arts program is delivering something much bigger than just a company sponsorship. It’s an active, innovative approach to recruiting down the road,” Myers said. “I put that in the innovation category—looking at recruitment in a new way; let’s start recruiting at the beginning. “If we can have face time with them now, if we can be that company touchpoint that they know from school, then when they get out in the world they know us and they are a little bit more aware of all of the different career opportunities that are out there,” she added. United established the program with LISD about three years ago and now has begun a partnership with South Plains College that will bring a new culinary arts program to its Lubbock campus. “The idea is that we can help them onto a path in a number of different ways without them having to already know what they want to do,” Myers said. “These high school graduates, who may not go on to a four-year college or straight into the workforce, will come out with a couple of different certificate options and on a faster management track than starting as an 18-year-old high school graduate in the store.”
A-Teams and UCrews
United has been in business for 102 years. Five years ago, it operated in 22 cities. Since the Albertsons acquisition, that number has more than doubled to 53 communities. The United Family opened 16 stores in the first year alone under Albertsons. As the company grew so quickly, so did requests for donations. With only so many resources, Myers and her team had to get creative about how to actively support all of those communities. One innovative solution the company has built upon is its UCrew, which is made up of United store team members who volunteer their time to serve their communities. Active since 2003, UCrew has logged more than 114,000 volunteer hours. Trinity Christian School came to The United Family seeking a floral donation for its 40th Anniversary Gala to be held on Feb. 15—the day after the busiest floral day of the year. Bradley Gaines, business director of floral for United, took charge of the project. The flowers were purchased from Market Street and, through its partnership with the Lubbock Independent School District, three classes of students fulfilled the request for 180 floral centerpieces for the gala. “This was a win-win for United—great floral ring, great on-the-job training for students and a gala where United did the flowers,” Gaines said. It is just one example of how United innovates to give back to the communities it serves and to expose students to retail as a career.
Smile! You’re Doing a Great Job
The United Family team members are encouraged to do their best and are then recognized for their efforts. That has been a United tradition and one that was an important consideration when Albertsons bought the company in 2013. United representatives absolutely insisted that employees would continue to be treated just as well as they had been. “United is really invested in people. That’s not just a marketing buzzword, mission statement or a plaque on the wall,” said Mary Myers, senior communications and community relations manager. “It’s really from the inside out. Once you get them in here, if they like the work, they stay because there are a number of things that happen, like guest encounters, company recognition and other internal programs that make it possible for someone in leadership to notice and say ‘thanks, you are doing a good job.’” Team members also are placed where they are most likely to succeed. Case in point: Donovan Jackson, who applied to United Supermarkets to be an overnight stocker. The Shelby Report found him tending a Taphouse 16 bar at a United Supermarkets store in Lubbock. So, how Donovan Jackson did Jackson get what is arguably the best job ever inside a grocery store? His charisma landed him the role. Jackson is personable, funny, smart, sincere and all the other things you want a bartender to be. A Texas Tech student majoring in psychology, Jackson talked about that one time when he forgot to bring lunch, didn’t have his wallet and was hungry. On that day, a supervisor happened to present him with a Smile card, usually worth about $5, in recognition of excellent customer service. Jackson was thrilled and used the card to buy his lunch in the store. Myers said the Smile program is threaded throughout the company. It trains leadership to notice when team members go above and beyond for customers. Everyone, whether they work in support, at a store or in a distribution center, remembers that the company calling card is a smile.
Following the Albertsons acquisition, the company formed the A-Team in 2014 with Albertsons Market store employees. UCrew and A-Team members are identified by their t-shirts. They may ring the bell for the Salvation Army at Christmas, clean up a playground or pick up trash along the highway. “Those are our 100 percent volunteer programs that are headed up by store directors and designed to put feet on the ground and serve. They are incredibly successful,” Myers said. “It is happening beyond the corporate office in the cities where team members live and work. Our teams always step up. They don’t say no.”
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Strategic Initiatives
‘The Fixer’ Oversees Multiple Projects at Once Greg Ammons holds the official title of VP of strategic initiatives for The United Family, but what he really does is fix things. When The Shelby Report spoke with Ammons, a.k.a. “The Fixer,” he had about 18 projects under way across the company. “You touch almost every discipline within the company—whether it is repair and maintenance, or marketing, Greg Ammons or operations or the warehouse, which makes it a lot of fun,” Ammons said. “I guess the reason I got ‘volunteered’ for that spot is because I already was leading our first project for the entire company—labor management.” He’s also had teams working on e-commerce and the company’s computer-assisted ordering initiative. And shrink. And more. Overseeing all of these different projects turned into a full-time job for Ammons, who had worked in-store for more than 40 years and was a little worried about the new post he took over in May of 2017. “It’s been a learning curve, that’s for sure,” he said. “This is what you call store support. We don’t sell a thing. I always stress that to my team. We’ve got to make it efficient, profitable and less frustrating for the stores. We want to enhance their lives. That’s really where we try to push the envelope mainly.” Tori Sypert, communications and community relations coordinator at United Supermarkets, described Ammons’ job this way: “If Robert (Taylor) and his team have a vision, then you know it is very high-level. Whatever it is that they want, they need the people to make it go, to get it going. Greg’s team corrals everyone to get it done.” Tori Sypert Ammons joked that he asked Taylor once if he saw a button on his desk that said, “Fix it.” The truth is, he said, “You need someone who can break off from a regular routine and go dive into something.” Most of the deep-dives involve costs, as in trying to reduce them.
The magic that is CAO
“I always tell everybody that if you put an old grocery guy in a room full of IT guys, anything is possible. I mean anything,” Ammons said. “They don’t know what they’re trying to get
right sometimes, but they are all smart and sharp. They create all these things.” One of those things is computer-assisted ordering (CAO). Ammons emphasizes the “assisted.” “It’s a computer, so you’ve got to give it the right data and you’ve got to maintain it,” he said. One of the major successes he’s seen with CAO is in packaged meat, which had the biggest reduction in inventory at 30 percent overall. Sales improved, but the inventory fell double digits in every store, even in Albuquerque, where it just launched in the first quarter of this year. As Ammons, who has been in the grocery business for 43 years, puts it, in the old days, there might have been a 30-year veteran writing an order; today, it could be 30-day employees. “You just don’t have that type of experience anymore, so we figured out that we had to come up with some kind of way to enhance the experience of the order writer,” Ammons said. “Now he’s got inventory cycles and forecasting all at the touch of his finger, right there on the machine, with instant data.” Every single item is tracked when it comes in, when it is scanned out, transferred or sold. In mid-July, Ammons said that just four departments were using CAO. The goal is to move every department to it. “I was looking at an order on eggs just the other day. At one store, the order was about 58 cases up until the day before Easter, and then it went to 530,” Ammons said. “You would think you would order a bunch, but do you think you would order 10 times as much? I don’t know.”
have believability,” Ammons said. “You’re controlling inventory, you’re controlling sales, freshness, which all, in turn, reduce shrink. What we say is if you can try to identify it, then it is actionable. If you follow all the processes then you can make it right.”
“I always tell everybody that if you put an old grocery guy in a room full of IT guys, anything is possible. I mean anything.” —Greg Ammons CAO is used in other areas of the store as well. When team members are cutting up fresh produce to package it for sale, for instance, they aren’t ordering anything because the inventory already is there. The problem was that if a shelf holds 10 bowls of cut fruit and there were two on it, the team member would just make eight more. “They would fill it up every day. We were throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars away,” Ammons said. The same CAO process was put in place, and shrink in that area was cut in half—then cut in half again. That made The United Family Division a shining star in the larger Albertsons organization. It was at the top for lowest shrink for fresh-cut produce. CAO also was created for some of the company’s DSD partners to help them tailor their orders for individual stores.
STREETside takes off
A quote from H.D. Snell, who founded United Cash Grocery—the precursor of The United Family—in 1916 in Lubbock, Texas. Ammons talked to a dairy manager in Ruidoso, New Mexico, who used to “deliver letters in California” and had been on the job with United for about two months. She had never worked in the grocery business or in any retail, for that matter. He walked the back room with her, and it was perfect. He asked her how she did it. She told him about CAO and said, “the system is telling me” what to order. “Those successes are key. You’ve got to spread the word to
STREETside is an online grocery shopping service that is unique to The United Family. Its team members pick the orders. STREETside launched in December of 2016 with curbside pickup available in as little as two hours. It first was offered in Amarillo because that’s where Ammons lived at the time, and he wanted to oversee it. In early 2017, the service launched in Lubbock. Another 18 STREETside locations were launched by the end of last year. This year, four more offer the service. The goal is to have about three dozen stores offering the STREETside service. Some of the stores also deliver. One store is designated for delivery in each community, except in Dallas-Fort Worth, where deliveries are made from more than one location. There had been some talk about providing online grocery shopping prior to late 2016, but not so much really in West Texas, Ammons said. Once it got rolling, though, it moved quickly. United and Walmart started offering the service within weeks of each other. “Walmart and us were both the first, and then everybody else has been tagging on from that point,” Ammons said. “No doubt Amazon and all those guys online are trying to get into our share of the grocery part of it. So I think this was one way we would be able to battle back. But then, also, people are time-starved. You’ve got to make it easier for your guests but create the right experience so they don’t feel like they’re just rushed through. You’ve got to give them options.” Online shoppers also may use Instacart for “express” delivery. But United stayed away from Instacart for some time mostly because it didn’t want to lose the “last mile.” Ammons said if something went wrong, guests would blame United, not Instacart. Pickers are instructed to go to the experts in the fresh departments like produce and meat. “How do you get comments like ‘they pick better meat than I would?’” Ammons said. “Because you’ve got an expert.” The picking process has changed since the December 2016 launch. Once again, the IT guys worked with the old grocery guy to come up with the most efficient process for picking. The company created a Please see page 36
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Marketing and Merchandising
The Unknown Is Where Differentiation—and the Fun—Happens At The United Family, shoppers are called guests. Their needs are constantly changing, so top-tier retailers like United change along with them. “That’s key to surviving because the needs and wants of our guests are known and not known,” said Wes Jackson, chief merchandising officer for The United Family. “The known is ‘I’m going to the store because I need ‘X.’ But the unknown within the store is the fun part. I hope we can inspire someone to realize, ‘I didn’t know I needed this, but that looks so good, let’s get this and this and put this together and do that.’” Everyone is trying to offer the best price on Dr Pepper and bathroom tissue, and United will continue to do that. It is the unknown where retailers can differentiate, and that is United’s sweet spot. United does the basics well, including the weekly ad and social media interaction. But the fun helps build the brand. Jackson likens it to how people feel inside a Trader Joe’s, where “all the cool kids go.” “We want to be able to do all of those things in Market Street that you can do in a Trader Joe’s, but you can still get your Tide and your Snickers. Life is better when you have those things,” Jackson said. “We hope that’s our advantage over them.” Market Street offers what it calls Concierge, a free party planning and special event service covering everything from the main course to dessert, beverages and paper products to floral centerpieces and ice. To get the word out about Concierge, the retailer uses expos filled with fun and some good eats, too. “We started with the ‘we do, I dos’ to let people know that we have things that can support you, like ‘entertaining made easy,’ or ‘here come the holidays,’” he said. “It’s all about the ways we can make it easy for you to do what you are going to do—entertain.” Expos may feature the “best of local” or international products highlighting the offerings United brings its shoppers from a specific country or around the world. A new expo this year was “Our Favorites.” It had an accompanying print piece showcasing products and indicating which of them would be sampled in-store during the two-day event. Some of Jackson’s own favorites were in it, like Market Street’s Strawberry Fields Salad. Sales of the salad increased by more than 300 percent thanks to the expo. Sales of another team member favorite, the Brisket Enchilada with Jalapeno Cream Strawberry Fields Salad Sauce, increased more than 400 percent. For the wedding expo, team members dressed as a bride or groom and offered guests samples of wedding cake and other foods that Market Street offers through its catering service. “It doesn’t really generate sales that day, but what it does do is Brisket Enchilada with generate a lot of consultations that turn into weddings scheduled Jalapeno Cream Sauce in the future,” Jackson said. “We’ve grown our wedding business— floral, bakery, foodservice and our catering business. It takes time, but we now are a wedding destination in Lubbock.”
Unique selling propositions
The United Family is no slouch in the health and wellness arena. About 10 years ago, it became part of the “value codes” for the company’s various retail banners: Market Street would be the health & wellness “destination,” United Supermarkets would have a “focus” on it and Amigos would “care” about it. “It’s an example of having a different approach for each brand, which I think is important because all things are not for everybody. All things are not for every brand,” Jackson said.
Inside the store, there are unique selling propositions (USPs) for every department. All team members are expected to know and understand the USPs of not just their own area but also every other department. There are usually three for each department. In the pharmacy, for example, one of the USPs is “ask our pharmacist; we are here to help.” “A pharmacist is the most accessible health care provider in the United States. You don’t have to call and make an appointment,” Jackson said. “We are trying to communicate to our guests that they don’t have to be scared or apprehensive about approaching our pharmacy team. We want our team to know that’s what we want and believe in so that they know. That’s what we are here to do, so you reach out in non-pharmacy areas with that message to drive them over to the pharmacy.” Registered dietitians create value at different levels depending on the brand—a little less in Amigos, more in United and then still more in Market Street, which hosts health fairs. Dietitian’s Top Picks are available in all of the grocery stores and help guests who have a desire to be more careful about what they are eating. Products with the Dietitian’s Top Pick designation make the basket healthier. It is that simple. There also are shopping lists and guides for different disease states, like diabetes, heart conditions and more. “‘Living well’ is an internal term. Our USP is that we have a dedicated team member who can help our guests with natural foods, vitamins, nutrition and all that. We are quite ahead of a lot of supermarkets in that area,” Jackson said. “I think that’s a great way to help guests.” It also has helped him personally. Jackson said that on Jan. 28 of this year, his weight reached an all-time high. “I didn’t go on a diet, but I’ve gone to a more disciplined way of eating. I’m still eating plenty, but I’m buying Dietitian’s Top Pick, and I’ve had conversations with the dietitians and they gave me some tips,” Jackson said. “I’m avoiding fast foods, fried foods, candy, cookies, ice cream—those were my vices. So, this morning I weighed 204. It’s easy, and it’s easy to do in our stores. If the dietitian has signed off on it, it’s pretty healthy.” Jackson was looking to get below 200. His wife has lost 18 pounds since Wes Jackson’s weight loss is they began selecting Dietitian’s Top obvious when compared to Pick products, and she wasn’t trying a photo taken a few years to lose weight. ago (see inset photo).
More solutions
Jackson said that there are thousands of consumer needs that the company strives to meet. United offers Ready Chef Go meal solutions for younger shoppers and busy people who don’t have the time or know-how to prepare meals. “We have to find solutions for the needs of our guests,” Jackson said. “Ready Chef Go is a great option. It can be microwaved or put in the oven.” There are Plated products available in some stores as well. It is a little more complicated product than Ready Chef Go, but all of the prep work has been done. The person who is preparing it just Congratulations to The United Family for being chosen follows the recipe that comes with as Southwest Retail Innovator of the Year and to it. Guests also can line up for food Mr. Robert Taylor as the 2018 Executive of the Year! cafeteria-style and get a meal they can eat right there in the store. HiTech of Texas and Latham Equipment have Jackson credits Diane Earl, proudly served The United Family since 1991. director of foodservice operations, with some of the offerings that are unique to United. (United CEO Thank you for your commitment, your support Robert Taylor loves the Smoked in our communities and your contribution to Gouda Pimento Cheese.)
your team members and partners.
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FORSCHNER/VICTORINOX and SWISS ARMY KASCO / ATLANTA SHARP TECH
Rewards program
The United Family has been offering a rewards program for more than 15 years, and it has been through several iterations. It is a program with two sides, Jackson said. One side is the loyalty, where guests receive grocery items like a free gallon of milk or a dollar off per gallon on fuel. The retailer also has “clubs”—for babies, pets, wine and more— that guests may join to receive discounts on some brands. There are deals so that if a guest spends $30 in the category, he or she gets $5 off the next purchase. “Rewarding our guests for shopping with us is a big part of our budget,” Jackson said. The other side is utilizing the data that is garnered from those programs. That is an area where he said United is playing catch-up. “That is a real growth area for us,” he said. “There is an opportunity for us to grow.”
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Branding
Robert Baker and Natalie Phillips at the Concierge area of a Market Street store in Lubbock. It is a free service for guests who are planning weddings, holiday parties and other special occasions. They can help with everything from beverages to paper products to floral centerpieces and ice, as well as catering.
Mary Myers, United’s senior communications and community relations manager, said the Market Street concept is “the future of grocery.” She calls it seven stores within one. “It blends foodservice, with a restaurant inside the grocery store; a gift boutique; a specialty health and wellness store; a free concierge service for complete special event planning, catering, floral, custom bakery; beer and wine; a pharmacy; and then there’s traditional grocery, so it was built to handle many lists in one store,” Myers said. “That’s the whole point. Whichever combination of errands that you have, if you stop at Market Street, more than one of them will get checked off your list.” It combines everyday grocery needs with gourmet and specialty items, whole-health products and freshly-prepared foods like sushi. Executive Chef Chris Wilson creates seasonal recipes for dine-in or take-home meals. Guests also will find household necessities, gifts, local and organic produce and more. Some of the stores even have a Taphouse 16 offering local/craft beers and wines on tap.
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Branding
Julio Elizalde manages the Amigos in Lubbock.
The wall in the dining area is covered with popular sayings, including “Barriga Lleno, Corazon Contento,” which translates to “full stomach, happy heart.”
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The Amigos format is designed with the Hispanic shopper in mind, but all are welcome to explore the colorful and bright stores. The four Amigos stores are located in Plainview, Amarillo, Hereford and Lubbock. The stores employ bilingual team members. “If you are looking for something different, this is the place to be,” said Julio Elizalde, who manages the Amigos in Lubbock. He said there are a couple of differences in the format. One is how large the sets in the store are. “We sell a lot more of certain items, so we need to keep large amounts of them to be able to fulfill the demand,” Elizalde said. “Our meat markets are different, too. We have a full-service counter. We prepare a lot of things to be ready for the grill, ready to be cooked. For instance, some are already seasoned and ready to go. We also offer them plain, so if someone has their own recipe, they can fix them however they want to.” The format has a foodservice component similar to Market Street’s but with authentic Hispanic offerings like menudo (the best seller, Elizalde said), tacos and build-your-own burritos. It also has a panaderia offering galletas (cookies), breads, postres (desserts) and pasteles de nieve (ice cream cakes). There are pre-marinated meats, conchas, tres leches (three milk) cakes, cold aguas frescas, a tortilleria offering free samples and salsas and fruit salads made fresh in the store. “Particularly in Texas, we’ve got a large population of families who want to be treated well, they want a fair price, they want to be able to get authentic ingredients, the products that they grew up with,” said Mary Myers, United’s senior communications and community relations manager. “That’s what Amigos is.”
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Branding
United Express is the convenience banner, but that convenience includes not only fuel and snacks but also a beer vault and fresh-cut fruit. Photos here are from the first next-generation United Express. The Express Café offers madeto-order salads, sandwiches, subs, calzones, burritos, quesadillas and pizza. Customers place their orders on a touchscreen and then print out a ticket to take to the register. There also is a place to sit and dine or drink a specialty hot or iced coffee—macchiatos, lattes, frappes, Americanos and more—that was made to order at the Barista Bar. Other United Express offerings include fountain drinks, wine, gift cards, snack packs, fresh ground beef and patties, lunch meat, cheeses and more. United shoppers can use their Rewards points and get up to $1 off per gallon of gas.
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SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
Innovation in: Decentralization
Not Your Typical Acquisition Robert Taylor, president of United Supermarkets, likes to help out when he is in one of the company’s stores. One day Taylor was taking groceries out to a woman’s car. “I asked her, ‘How has your day been? Great shopping experience?’” Taylor said. “She said, ‘I see things beginning to change, and I just know that with Albertsons’ technology things will change.’ And I said, ‘No, they really won’t.’” The woman looked at Taylor and asked, “How do you know?” He told her he was the guy who helped make the deal. “They’re going to live up to their end of the deal, and we are going to live up to ours. It’s going to be good,” Taylor told the woman. Albertsons acquired The United Family in 2013 and, as is the case with many acquisitions, the company doing the acquiring promised not to change a thing. The difference in this case is that Albertsons kept that promise. Taylor said that Bob Miller, CEO of Albertsons, always starts a conversation with, “Hey, are we leaving you alone?” Albertsons was not the highest bidder. Another company offered more, but the previous owners, the Bumstead family, decided to go with Albertsons because it would be the better steward of all those things that made United worth acquiring in the first place. In a forward to a commemorative book written for the United’s 100-year anniversary in 2016, Miller wrote that United had “trumped” Albertsons in West Texas. Albertsons pulled up stakes and left. When Miller took on the CEO role in 2015, Albertsons began working on
its decentralized model. “With this model, we knew that we would go back into West Texas,” Miller said. “One of the key points for creating success with United was simple: the business could continue running as its own division with local management in charge, but backed by a strong organization who is better positioned for growth in the future.” Albertsons wanted to acquire a company with the culture, people and the service focus that United had, said Mary Myers, senior communications and community relations manager for The United Family. “The decentralized model that Albertsons operates is visionary. I don’t how else to say it,” Myers said. “The way Bob Miller sees business, and the way he sees operations is the opposite of what a normal company would have done. They acquire a great small regional chain, and they immediately set to transitioning it into their culture. He went the other way. He insisted that it stay decentralized, that decisions remain guided and made at the local level. We were told ‘we see value in you, do what you do and do it excellently, and we will support you’ and they’ve kept their word every step of the way. “We are equally proud now four years later that we are still committed to that and that we are still delivering that, and that we’ve potentially maybe influenced parts of the company that weren’t ours,” Myers added.
The longest day
The United Family got its start as the United Grocery Co. back in 1916.
Taylor From page 20 (Editor’s note: In this quote, James is referring to The United Family’s autonomy within the larger Albertsons Cos. organization.)
As well as the acquisition has worked out for both Albertsons and The United Family, the memory of the day when the announcement was made is still fresh. Taylor remembers the blue and white striped shirt he was wearing on that September day nearly five years ago when team members gathered together in the Store Support Center in Lubbock to hear the news. “When I tell you people were crying, you had people who were bawling,” said Tori Sypert, communications and community relations coordinator. Sypert and Taylor both teared up a bit recounting the events of that morning. But the day was not without humor, at least in hindsight. “We told the Lubbock group early in the morning and asked them to please not say anything. We got in our little airplane and went to Amarillo,” Taylor said. “There was a hint when we got to Wichita Falls that it was starting to leak out. That was not a real happy scene. By the time we got to Dallas, it was out. I told somebody that I’d been to happier funerals. That was the longest day of my life.” That day also happened to be Taylor’s birthday. He called his wife, Jan, when he landed back in Lubbock to tell her he would be running a little late for the birthday celebration that had been planned. She told him that she knew where he was because she was at that moment watching him on TV. Local reporters had filmed the plane landing. Taylor walked into a hornet’s nest. “The first question was ‘Is United in financial trouble? Is that why they sold?’” he said. That was not why it was sold, but it would take a while for the people who love The United Family to absorb the impact. “We went on down the road and finally, I think, we’ve won most people over. You know everything that happens wrong is Albertsons’ fault, so I’ve got an easy job,” Taylor said with a laugh.
“He knows the culture around this area, and he treats people well. He is very, very respected. That’s what we like about working for United. For years, they have taken care of not only the people who shop in our stores but our team members. He leads that way. We really love that about Robert.”
—Julio Elizalde, Amigos Store Director
“Robert is one of the key reasons that we have that freedom. He is great with relationships and he builds those relationships. I’m shocked all the time. He knows everybody. I don’t care what business they’re in. I don’t care what you’re talking about. We’ll run into a roadblock on something, and he will say, ‘wait, who are you talking to? Let me call somebody. I’ve got an old college buddy that I think I can call.’ I’m telling you, he’s got ‘a guy’ everywhere.”
—Chris James, The United Family COO Robert Taylor high-fives team members.
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2018 Retail Innovator of the Year
From page 24
process that increased the speed of picking orders more than 20 percent vs. a year ago. Ammons said a 16-year-old employee at one Market Street store who had never picked an order was able to beat the company’s goal of 85 orders picked in a day. He picked 90. He could do that because the process was designed to show him which aisle and section to go to for everything on the list. It also displays a photo of each product. The urgency to offer online shopping came about after Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market. Mary Myers, United’s senior communications and community relations manager, said that was a turning point not only for United and Albertsons but for the retail food industry. “My prediction is we will look back on that the same way we look back on Walmart carrying groceries, as a point where the industry changed forever,” Myers said.
Bringing the grocery store to ‘man camps’
Myers said that the STREETside service also has the ability to stretch United’s service area. She illustrated the point by asking Ammons to tell “the Pecos story.” Pecos is a tiny town in West Texas where the oil business grew a lot faster than did the infrastructure to support it. It is mostly oil rigs, RVs and “man camps” for the workers.
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SEPTEMBER 2018 • The Shelby Report of the Southwest
Innovation in: Strategic Initiatives
After hearing from someone in Pecos who shops with The United Family in Odessa, which is an 80-mile haul from the man camps, Ammons and his team worked on a solution. It took one STREETside truck and several traffic cones to make it happen. And it was a hit. A STREETside truck was taken to Pecos and parked in a field. It had 40 grocery orders aboard. Online shoppers drove by the truck to pick up their orders, Ammons said. “That what we really call drive up and go,” he said. The service also is offered in Monahans, a city similar to Pecos that is located in the shale-rich Permian Basin. “We were able to take something that we built and invest in it and turn it into truly an innovative business solution for an underserved city without the risk and the investment in
brick and mortar,” Myers said. “I love that story. I love how it turned out.” It turned out so well that the locals in Pecos took it upon themselves to erect a sign advertising the STREETside service.
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